One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: An Analysis

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is a story about the members of a ward for the mentally ill. The book tells the tale of a new member on the ward named McMurphy who enters the ward with the motive of getting out of work for his own selfish reasons. He later changes his purpose for being on the ward to making sure that most of the patients can become new men and leave the ward. McMurphy's actions start off as him as a troublemaker but over time he is looked at as a Christ figure.

The very first day McMurphy ends up on the ward everyone senses that this man is very different from all of the other patients. McMurphy walks around the ward with confidence unlike the other patients and from the very moment he set foot in the building, …show more content…
The Aides speak to him in a controlling manner and "he don't just submit with a weak little yes." Over time his attitude isn't appreciated and is noted by the woman in charge ,Nurse Ratched, so she makes it her mission to break down this man no matter what it takes. McMurphy being the gambling man he was happily took on the challenge of trying to break Nurse Ratched. He even makes up a bet with all of the patients wagering that "he can get the best of that woman." This begins a very long battle of trying to see who would break first but it starts a lot of progress with the development of the patients because they all begin to follow McMurphy's lead and this is where we begin to see him as a Christ figure. If McMurphy was at his strongest so were the patients. They all began to follow his teachings and lifestyle just like Jesus did with his followers. McMurphy teaches them how to speak up and do right when they believed in it. One example would be the vote for the T.V. time change. Something like that would have never happened hadn't McMurphy arrived to the ward. Although it failed in the beginning, the fact that there was an effort put your showed that the patients …show more content…
You would think he was a different person. McMurphy was a man who made it to the ward for his own personal gain and transitioned to someone who later sacrifices his life for the benefit of the Acutes even when he is given the opportunity to get away from harm and the ward. Although McMurphy was a changed man, he was still portrayed by Nurse Ratched as self centered and the patients begin to change how they feel about him. Billy Bibbit being one of them when McMurphy asks for twenty dollars and he complains saying "Twenty bucks! It doesn't cost the muh-muh-much for bus fare down here." McMurphy explains that the money isn't just for Candy and Billy starts to resent him. Billy was one of the two patients who stood by McMurphy the longest. The other was Chief Bromden but like Billy, he changes his feelings towards McMurphy. Chief witnesses McMurphy starting bets with the other patients that they can't win and Chief doesn't like it because he begins to take very high bets but McMurphy "never said a thing about seeing me (Chief) lift it already." As the end of the book nears everyone begins to stand behind McMurphy all over again because he makes sure Billy and the patients have the time of their lives instead of leaving the ward forever. All of the patients notice that for the first time McMurphy is helping them without any sort of incentive for his